Enlightenment window manager
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 30 window managers by recommenders
Free Linux window manager praised for its nostalgic look, light footprint and virtual desktops; critics cite crashes and a rough fit with modern workflows.
Free Linux window manager praised for its nostalgic look, light footprint and virtual desktops; critics cite crashes and a rough fit with modern workflows.
70 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 51
- criticize it
- 19
- approval share
- 73%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 51 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Lightweight, low resource use
“E is now a super-lightweight system compared with the mainstream environments that plauge our RAM chips today.”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16” “it's better at a lot of things because it's fairly low-spec and doesn't require a terabyte of ram”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16” “the core of the window manager doesn't have any kind of bloat or slowness”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16” Attractive visuals with nostalgic appeal
“The era 20 years ago (e.g. Enlightenment) was way more fun than the bland monotonic design we have these days”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design” “It had really fancy visuals that worked on fairly slow hardware.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Enlightenment 0.28.0 Release” “Transparent eterms and tasteful backgrounds everywhere.”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16” - Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Enlightenment 0.28.0 Release”
- Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design”
- Comment from 31 Oct 2026 in “Enlightenment 0.28 Released with Many Improvements”
Hard to replace for longtime users
“None of the other alternatives interest me, and I've tried them all.”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16” “Nothing else I've used has hit the same seamless ease.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Enlightenment 0.28.0 Release”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Crashes and instability
“early versions weren't a model of stability, but that wasn't nearly as important as an X server or a Wayland compositor not crashing”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16” “The novelty wore off in a week with Enlightenment's constant crashing”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design” “I can't believe this crash ridden peice of WM Still exist”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Enlightenment 0.28.0 Release” Not lightweight; resource usage concerns
“it was definitely not lightweight compared to many of the alternatives”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16” “I loved using the environment but would regularly harangue him for being glib on resource usage.”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16” Effects distract during daily use
“after about 10 minutes the burning windows felt like they were getting in the way”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Wayland desktop for Linux with skeuomorphic design” “it always stopped to be good looking when it wasn't a screenshot anymore but a running process on my machine”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16”
Other window managers people recommend
The four most recommended other window managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyprland | 82 | 33 | 71% | 12 | 1 mo4 owners | Approved |
| Rectangle for macOS | 67 | 3 | 96% | 11 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| Enlightenment window managerThis page | 51 | 19 | 73% | 8 | — | Approved |
| FVWM | 28 | 4 | 88% | 8 | 25 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| AwesomeWM | 26 | 2 | 93% | 11 | 12 yrs3 owners | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 86 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Nothing else I've used has hit the same seamless ease.”
“It’s great to see the Rasterman himself still doing releases after all these years!”
“It had really fancy visuals that worked on fairly slow hardware.”
“It was so cool to see all effects and nice graphics.”
“I can't believe this crash ridden peice of WM Still exist”
“This is nice and all, but it doesnt fit my workflow”
“E16 was the height of cool when it came out.”
“the most complete ( although not complete ) UI ecosystem in C that I've seen”
“after about 10 minutes the burning windows felt like they were getting in the way”
“xfce and Enlightenment should do a fusion become one project”
“The novelty wore off in a week with Enlightenment's constant crashing”
“I look back at my Enlightenment desktop with joy.”
“The era 20 years ago (e.g. Enlightenment) was way more fun than the bland monotonic design we have these days”
“Don't need to be so drastic, XFCE, Afterstep, windowmaker, Openbox, Enlightment”
“AfterStep, Enlightenment and many others were really nice.”
“Implementing all that was probably quite an achievement, even if I didn't like all the visual decisions.”
“the core of the window manager doesn't have any kind of bloat or slowness”
“early versions weren't a model of stability, but that wasn't nearly as important as an X server or a Wayland compositor not crashing”
“it was definitely not lightweight compared to many of the alternatives”
“I really enjoyed it for the brief time I used it!”
“None of the other alternatives interest me, and I've tried them all.”
“it requires Connman and setting it up properly is a pain imo”
“e16 was truly unique... honestly the best Linux desktop ever made”
“I used enlightenment for a bit and was very happy with it”
“In e, this is just a setting where the user gets to choose what their computer does.”
“the killer feature for me were independent virtual desktops accross monitors”
“I always appreciated how you can simply attach to the enlightenment process at any point, and also upon a crash.”
“it's better at a lot of things because it's fairly low-spec and doesn't require a terabyte of ram”
“it always stopped to be good looking when it wasn't a screenshot anymore but a running process on my machine”
“E13 was a great, simple, good looking WM I used for years.”
“I really appreciate that it's held true to its own core.”
“they went both visually rather tame and scope-creepy (own graphical libraries etc.)”
“E is now a super-lightweight system compared with the mainstream environments that plauge our RAM chips today.”
“I'm happy people are still using and even improving Enlightenment.”
“Transparent eterms and tasteful backgrounds everywhere.”
“I loved using the environment but would regularly harangue him for being glib on resource usage.”
“Looking at my old windows 98 machine and then at slackware Linux with enlightenment lured me to Linux”
“this unbelievable coolness working on my laptop”
“I wish Englightenment and Xfce were together a single thing”
“it was fun for a while in Enlightenment, but really not usable”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.